A new Fox News poll in Alabama shows former President Obama is more popular in Alabama than Donald Trump. The poll shows Obama with a 52% favorability rating in the state, compared to Trump’s 49%.

47.9%

Gallup finds that Barack Obama finished his tenure as president with a 47.9% average job approval rating. He ranks below eight presidents and ahead of only three — Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Harry Truman — in Gallup’s polling history.

50% to 43%

President Obama’s job approval rating, his highest score since right after he won reelection four years ago, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Most interesting: “Obama’s policies have helped the nation’s economy, 44% of voters say, as 38% say his policies have hurt the economy and 16% say his policies haven’t made a difference. But only 21% of voters say Obama’s policies have helped their personal financial situation, as 33% say these policies have hurt them personally and 44% say they’ve made no difference.”

President Obama’s approval rating has risen to 54% to 45%, according to a new CNN/ORC poll, and now stands at its highest level since just before his second inauguration in 2013.

51%

“Of registered voters say they approve of the job Obama is doing as president, compared to 46 percent who disapprove. The last time more than half of the electorate gave Obama a thumbs up in the poll was in January 2013, when Obama took the oath of office after his successful re-election campaign against Republican Mitt Romney;” President Obama has hit his highest approval rating since his second inauguration, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows.

Presidential Obama’s approval rating, with 50% disapproving, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll. The fall has been driven almost entirely by concerns about terrorism and refugees.

48%

President Obama’s latest approval rating. “Why is that number important? Because the poll shows — once again — how Hillary Clinton and Obama are inextricably tied together,” according to First Read. “And so an Obama approval in the high 40s is good news for Hillary’s general-election prospects, and an Obama approval in the low 40s is bad news (like we saw in 2014). … Oh, and don’t forget this: George W. Bush’s approval rating at this same point in time heading into the 2008 contest was 29%.”

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Enumerati

15.6%

An early straw poll of members of the progressive group MoveOn.org shows a wide-open competition for liberal voters in the forthcoming 2020 Democratic presidential contest, NBC News reports. The most popular potential candidate was Beto O’Rourke at 15.6%, followed by joe Biden at 14.9%, and then Sen. Bernie Sanders with 13.1%.

Enumerati

29%

A new CNN poll finds President Trump’s approval rating for handling the Russia investigation dips to 29%, matching a low previously hit in June of this year. “But Robert Mueller’s approval rating is also down in the poll: 43% approve and 40% disapprove. That compares to a 48% approve to 36% disapprove split in early October. The dip in Mueller’s numbers comes almost entirely among independents, among whom approval has fallen 10 points to 36%.”

Enumerati

57%

A new NPR/PBS/Marist poll finds that 57% of Americans think President Trump should compromise on his border wall to prevent a government shutdown. Furthermore, nearly 69% of Americans do not consider building a border wall between the United States and Mexico to be an immediate priority for the next Congress.

Enumerati

$25,000

“Jessica Denson, a former staffer for President Donald Trump’s campaign, is fighting an order to pay nearly $25,000 for violating a nondisclosure agreement, according to court papers,” BuzzFeed News reports. “The award to the Trump campaign came out of arbitration — non-public proceedings the campaign pursued against Denson after she filed two lawsuits against it. Denson was ordered to pay $25,000 to the campaign in October, but the award wasn’t made public until Denson’s lawyers included it in court filings in New York County Supreme Court in late November.”

Enumerati

20

The Washington Post has instituted a new fact checking category — called “Bottomless Pinocchios” — for President Trump’s false claims that have been repeated at least 20 times and were originally rated Three or Four Pinocchios. “The Fact Checker has not identified statements from any other current elected official who meets the standard other than Trump. In fact, 14 statements made by the president immediately qualify for the list.”

Poetic Justice

Steve Bannon’s no longer calling important shots,
And his invitations to speak usually end in boycotts.
His latest speaking brouhaha
Came from the University of Montana,
Which canceled Bannon’s keynote at a conference on sex robots.

Verbatim

“Jesus loves Michael Cohen, but everybody else thinks he’s an idiot. He’s obviously a sleaze-oid grifter. And if I were a prosecutor, I wouldn’t base a prosecution on evidence given to me by Mr. Cohen.”

Verbatim

“Fake News has it purposely wrong. Many, over ten, are vying for and wanting the White House Chief of Staff position. Why wouldn’t someone want one of the truly great and meaningful jobs in Washington. Please report news correctly. Thank you!”

— President Trump, insisting on Tuesday that “he’s having no trouble finding a new chief of staff, despite having already burned through two such top aides and being turned down by his reported first choice,” Politico reports.

“We’ve had limited success in dealing with this President. His word isn’t good. Within 48 hours he reverses himself. It’s very difficult to enter into a long-term agreement.”

Verbatim

“These power grabs highlight one of the most disturbing facts about American politics today: The Republican Party has become institutionally indifferent to the health of democracy. It prioritizes power over principle to such an extreme degree that it undermines the most basic functioning of democracy. … In the long run, the GOP’s turn against democracy could well be a greater threat to the American experiment than anything President Trump has done.”